General-service railway car



A ril l 1924; 1,488,663

p G. c. cHl-:IRBoNNvc-.R

GENERAL sERvIcE RAILWAY CAR- Filed May 13. 1922 -2 sheets-sheet 1 April l, 1924.` 1,488,663

' G.` c. CHERBONNIER 4 GENERAL SERVICE RAILWAY CAR Filed May 13. 1922 2 Sheetfs-Sheet 2 y 7 2z 3M i ,Wren/MY.

Patented Apr. 1, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT I or les.

GEORGE C. CHERBONNIER, OF FERGUSON, MISSOURI, ASSIGNGR TD AMERICAN' CAE @t FOUNDRY CO., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEV JERSEY.

GENERAL-SERVICE RAILWAY can.

Application inea May is,

To @ZZ whom it may concern.'

Be it known thatk I, GEORGE C. CHEREON- NIER, residing at Ferguson, St. Louis Go., Missouri, and being a citizen of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in General-Service Railway Cars, of which the following is a full, clear,

and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and to use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,

which illustrate the preferredform of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as

it is obvious that various modifications thereof within the scope of the'claims will occur to persons skilled in the art.

In said drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan of a portion of `a car equipped with a door-operating mechanism constructed in accordance with my invention; j

Fig. 2 is a sectional viewktaken on line 2-2 of'Fig.y 1, looking in the direction indicated by the arrow;

Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the door raised and locked in its initial relatively closed position;

Fig. 1 is a like view showing the door locked in an intermediate relatively closed position.

Fig. 5 is a similar view showing the door locked and completely closed;

Fig. 6 is a section taken on line 6 6 of Fig. 5 looking in the direction indicated by the arrow and showing my invention applied to the car part shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a detail of the elongated bearing and guide for the door releasing and supend of the shaft bearing, a like relation is established. In all of'its movements, the cam porting shaft; and

Fig. 8 is a detail of the cam fixed tothe door releasing and supporting shaft for controlling movement thereof.

The object 4of my invention is to provide a general service railway car in which a plurality of drop doors are adapted to be manually and severally raised and automatically locked, and simultaneously released.

Another object is to .provide a mechanism for locking the drop doors in closed and rel-` ativ'ely closed positions.

A further and important object is to provide means for raising the doors from a guide lugs 2O and 21,

192e. serial Nro. emma. l

'locked and fully closed position.

In the drawings, 10 represents the center sill of the car, 11 the crossbearers, 12 one of the side walls, and 13 designates one of the drop doors hinged at the center sills and closing the opening between said car framy ing members. Secured to the doors 18 at their free edges are gravity locking latches 14 suspended from brackets 15 by pins 16 and adapted to automatically engage door supporting means hereinafter referred to.

Cooperating with the gravity latches 14C on the vdoors and supported in elongated bearings 17 near the ends of the crossbearer members 11, are door supporting shafts 18 adapted for lateral movement to and from a position under the doors. For eifecting such lateral movement, said shafts are provided with rigid thrust cams 19 mounted at points adjacent the elongated bearings 17 andadapted to-engage protruding guide lugs 2O and 21 on the shaft bearings so that upon rotation of shaft 18 said cam will bear peripherally upon one or the othervof said lugs and'urge said shaft-awayL from such flug into a position under the door or from such position to onebeyond the free edge of said door.

The thrust cams 19 are so proportioned to length of shaft bearing 17 and positions of guide lugs 2O and 21 arranged at opposite ends of said bearing that when the door supporting shaft 18 moves to one end of said bearing a line drawn through said-shaft and the lug at the opposite end'of-the bearing would coincidevwith the4 major axis of the cam. In such relation of the parts, the shaft is lockedagainst lateralmovenient until, by movement of the shaft to the opposite 19 is confined to reciprocation between and is restrained from abnormal movement below said lugs by?l means of stop extensions 22 and 23 on the cam. In an extreme position of the shaft at one end of the shaft bearing av stop extension will lie in juxtaposition with lug 20 or 21.

Under certain-'severe service conditions, due to the possible distortion of door plates or accumulation of matter between the doors and cary framing members, the doors may not completely close. Against such contingency l provide an intermediate locking position for the doors as illustrated in Fig. l of the drawings. F or this purpose, one or more depressions 24 may loe formed in the margin of cam 19 for the reception of lug 20 to check outward movement of the shaft 18.

ln all locking positions of the shaft 18, whether under the doors 13 or beyond the free edges thereof, the gravity latches 142 will at all times automatically engage said shaft and lock said doors when the doors are raised. To insure the proper seating of the gravity locking latches 14 upon shaft 18 when the doors are raised, the latches are formed with a normally inclined front face 25 and a diverging rear face 26, said faces being connected hy a surface 27 shaped to provide a curved shaft-hearing portion 28 and a latch-stop portion 29. The stop-portion 29 is provided to prevent excessive forward movement of the latch upon the shaft while excessive rearward movement of said latch is prevented by a stop 30 on the latch brackets on the door.

'lo facilitate the manual operation of the doors 13, I provide a loop piece31 on the underside of each door a short distance hack of the free edges thereof as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, adapted to receive the end of a temporary har 32 to afford additional leverage against possible obstruction to door raising movement. The har 32 is rbraced against the underside of a door stiffener 38 during the door raising` operation to permit the door to pass the shaft 18 and prevent the bar from striking said shaft. The loop 31 is wide enough to permit the shifting of the lifting bar to either corner of the door in the event of the sagging of the door at these points to insure the proper seating of latches lll upon the shaft.

ln operation, if it is desired to lock the doors in the full closed position shown in Figs. 2, 5 and 6, the doors are first raised by hand, with the temporary assistance of a har 32 if necessary, until the latches 14 seat with their curved shaft bearing portions 28 upon the shaft 18 which, at this stage of the operation, occupies the outer end of the elongated hearing 17 adjacent to lug 20, as shown in F ig. 8. With the shaft in the position stated and the latches 1 4 resting thereon, the door will occupy the relatively closed position shown in .During the progress of door movement to such relatively closed position, the latches 14 will engage shaft 18 along their inclined front faces and be forced inwardlyuntil said faces clear the shaft whereupon said latches will swing outwardly by gravity until their curved shaft-hearing portions 28 are firmly seated upon the shaft and the door locked. With the latches thus seated upon the shaft Vthe door will be locked in a relatively closed position and in condition to he raised to its final and fully closed position. As soon as the doors are raised and their latches mounted on the shaft, any subsequent n'iovement of said shaft will loe transmitted to such latches simultaneously.

To raise the loclred relatively closed doors to their fully closed position, the shaft 18 is rotated by means of any suitable operating means (not shown) in a direction away from the free edge of the doors as indicated by the arrow in l? 8.. until cam 19on the shaft engages lug 2O adjacent the lnearing 17 with sufficient pressure'to cause said siaft to n'iore along its bearing to its ultimate positi under the doors, its the shaft proere..,ses in its inovemeifit inwardly under the influence of the cam 19 rotating therewith. the gravity latches la are tilted inwardly and drawn upon th, shaft until checked hy stop portions 2S) thereon as shoe in Figs. l and 5. Continued travel of the shaft during the final closing movement of the doors will cause further inward tilting' of the latches until said latch movement checked upon coinpletion of shaft movement or by Contact with latch stops on the door hraclrets. During this final stage of movement, shaft rotation will cease upon contact of stop extension 23 on the cam with lug 21 on the shaft hearing, and the cam will lie with its major axis in line with lug 20 and the shaft, preventing outward lateral movement of said shaft.

it will he noted that in their final loclred positions the latches standwith their supporting pins 16 directly above the shafts 18. fn such positions of the latches the doors are wedged up and locked, such wedg- Ving effect being produced loy the movement of the shaft towardsthe latches to cause said latches to tilt under the pressure of said moving shaft, the tilting of the latches producing a powerful wedging action upon the doors during theirxfinal closing movement. Y

To release the doors the shaft is rotated in a direction inwardly from the car side as indicated hy the arrow in Fig. 5. As the shaft is rotated. cam 19 will engage lug 21 of the hearing 17 and force said shaft outwardly from i position under the doors. As the shaft cont iues its movement outwardly under pressure of the cam against lug' 21, the latches 14 bearing on topl of the shaft will roll away from said shaft and release the doors. Continued rotation of the shaft iu the same direction will force une shaft to its outermost position .in loearing 17 to he again locked from lateral move ment when cam 19 reaches a position with its major axis in line with lug 21 the shaft, whereupon continued rotation thereof will be checked upon contact of stop eX- 'laisses tension 22 on the cam with lug 2O on they doors to their locking positionand the locking means. The doors are automatically and positively locked when severally raised, relieving the operator from any necessary for manipulating locking means while holding the doors.

Wlhat I claim is:

l. In a door operating mechanism, the combination comprising a hinged door, separate supporting means for said door, and a latch pivotally mounted on said door adapted to swing by gravity into position for engaging said supporting means to lock said door when raised, said supporting means being movable away from the door to release said latch.

2. In, a dump car, a plurality ojf drop doors forming the floor of said car and adapted to be manually and severally raised, gravity latches depending from said doors, and door supporting means in position to engage said latches, said supporting means being movable to simultaneously release said doors.

3. In a general service railway car, manually and severally operable drop doors carrying locked latches at their free edges, and separate door supporting means adjacent said doors adapted to move said locking latches for simultaneously releasing said doors, said latches operating to automatically engage the door supporting means upon raising of said doors.

4. In a general service railway car, manually and severally operable drop doors carrying gravity locking latches at their free edges, and separate door supporting means adjacent said doors adapted to engage said locking latches for supporting said doors in an initially locked position, said door supporting means being movable to simultaneously raise saidldoors from said position.

5. In a general service railway car, manually and severally operable drop doors carrying depending locking latches at their free edges, and separate door locking means adjacent the doors adapted to move said locking latches for simultaneously releasing said doors, said locking latches operating,

to automatically engage said supporting means upon raising of said doors.

6. In a door operating mechanism for general service railway cars having a plurality of drop doors, door supporting mechanism extending along the car side and adjacent the free edges of said doors, gravity locking latches carried by the doors adapted to automatically engage said supporting mechanism for locking said doors in relatively closed position, said latches being f movable with said supporting mechanism to completely close said doors.

7. In a general service railway car comprising framing members and drop doors adapted to close the openings between said members, door supporting shafts movably supported in said framing members adjacent the free edges of said doors, gravity latches carried by the doors adapted to automatically engage said supporting shafts for locking said doors in relatively closed position, said latches being movable with said supporting mechanism to completely close said doors.

8. In a general service railway car comprising framing members and manually and severally operable drop doors adapted to l close the openings between said members, door supporting shafts movably supported in said framing members adjacent the free edges of said doors, gravity latches carried by the `doorsadapted to automatically engage said supporting shafts for locking said doors when raised.

9. In a general service railway car comprising framing members and manually and severally operable drop doors adapted to. close the openings between said members, door supporting shafts movably supported in said framing members adjacent the free edges of said doors, gravity latches carried by the doors adapted to automatically engage said supporting shafts for locking said doors in relatively closed position, said latches being movable with said shafts to completely close said doors.

10. In a door operating mechanism for cars having a plurality of manually and severally operable drop doors supported at their free edges when raised, door supporting shafts movably supported on the car adjacent the free edges of said doors, means on the car for guiding the movements of said shafts to and from positions under the doors, and thrust cams rigidly mounted on said shafts cooperating with said guiding means for laterally moving said shafts.

11. In a door operating mechanism for cars having a plurality of manually and severally operable drop doors supported at their free edges when raised, door supporting shafts movably supported onthecar adjacent the free edges of said doors, means on the car for guiding the movements of said shafts to and from positions under the doors, and thrust cams rigidly mounted on said shafts cooperating with said guiding means for laterally. moving said shafts and subsequent-ly locking them against such lateral movement.

12. In a general service railway car having a plurality of manually and severally operable drop doors supported at their free 4 lessees Vwith to nieve said shatts upon said hearings.

13. En a general service railway ear having` a plurality oi manually and severally operable drop doors supported at their tree edges when raised, rotatable door support ingshafts supported in extended hearings on the oar training' and adapted for lateral movement to and Jrroin position under the doors, shatt lquiding; means at s ,l l hearings, and thrust cams rigidly mounted on the shafts adapted for reoiproeatien between said guiding; .means and cooperating therewith to move sait shaft along said hearings, said eams having stopI extensions designed to engage said guiding means to prevent abnormal movement of the earns heyond said guiding means.

14. ln a general service railway oar having a plurality of manually and seveally operable drop doors supported at their Jtree edges when raised, depending gravity latches adjacent the free edges and pivoted Vto the underside or" said doors, rotatable door supporting shaft supported in eX tended hearings on the oar framine and adapted for lateral movement to and from a position under the doors, shaft guiding means at said hearings, and thrust cams rigidly mounted on the shaft adapted for reciprooation between said guiding means and cooperating' therewith to move said shaft along` said hearings, said Cams having stop extensions designed to engae said guide means to prevent abnormal movement of the eams beyond said Ouide means, said shaft being adapted to move away from the doors to simultaneously release them.

l5. ln a general service railwayV oar having a plurality or" manually and severally operable drop doors supported at their free edges when raised, gravity latches on the underside of said doors ladjacent the tree edges' thereof, a rotatable door supporting shaft supported in extended hearings on the ear framing and adapted for lateral movenient to and from a position under the doors and adapted to move away Jr'rom the doors to simultaneously release them, shaft guiding means at said hearings and thrust earns rifridly mounted on the shaft adapted for i'eoiproeation loetween said guiding means and Cooperating therewith to move said shaft upon said hearings.

ln witness whereof l have hereunto set my hand in the presenee of two witnesses.

GEORGE C. CHERBQNNIER.

l/Vitnesses WM. F. DrnrisoHsoN, ROBERT J. KUHL. 

